Food: Nature’s Hand Cattle Co. starts at the source

The Hands’ Easy Beef Stew is served with Mom’s German Dumplings on top.

contributed photo

By Jan Waddy / Panamacity.com

Published: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 03:03 PM.

WESTVILLE — On Monday morning, Carolyn Hand welcomed me onto the same pastures where she grew up picking berries, eating fresh vegetables and chicken, and “got to be a kid.”

The family’s herd of cattle greeted us behind a vine-wrapped fence, and Hand pointed out where part of another fence had been replaced.

“No herbicides are used, so the vines begin pulling down the old fences. Everything has gone back into the farm,” said Hand, who started selling Nature’s Hand Cattle Co. grass-fed beef at local farmers’ markets a year ago.

Hand was raised on the farm’s original 60 acres, just behind where the herd was grazing in the overseeded summer pasture. Across the street, grass in the winter pasture was just coming back after a recent freeze.

“There are 70 brood cows out there that have calves. We have been lucky this year. Everything has been bull-making,” Hand said. “There are 110 cattle in all — the same number we had last year. We processed 25 last year.”

Four years ago her parents, Jeanne and Joe Hand, told Hand and her siblings they were selling all the cows, because they wanted to be able to travel as they neared retirement.

“I was living in Central Florida, eating organic and working at the hospital,” said Hand, whose parents had been selling the cows to feedlots. “I said, ‘Oh, no, we are just selling them wrong.’ I was the one who went to the mall, not home on the farm with the cows, but I love them. This place without the cows wouldn’t be home.”

WESTVILLE — On Monday morning, Carolyn Hand welcomed me onto the same pastures where she grew up picking berries, eating fresh vegetables and chicken, and “got to be a kid.”

The family’s herd of cattle greeted us behind a vine-wrapped fence, and Hand pointed out where part of another fence had been replaced.

“No herbicides are used, so the vines begin pulling down the old fences. Everything has gone back into the farm,” said Hand, who started selling Nature’s Hand Cattle Co. grass-fed beef at local farmers’ markets a year ago.

Hand was raised on the farm’s original 60 acres, just behind where the herd was grazing in the overseeded summer pasture. Across the street, grass in the winter pasture was just coming back after a recent freeze.

“There are 70 brood cows out there that have calves. We have been lucky this year. Everything has been bull-making,” Hand said. “There are 110 cattle in all — the same number we had last year. We processed 25 last year.”

Four years ago her parents, Jeanne and Joe Hand, told Hand and her siblings they were selling all the cows, because they wanted to be able to travel as they neared retirement.

“I was living in Central Florida, eating organic and working at the hospital,” said Hand, whose parents had been selling the cows to feedlots. “I said, ‘Oh, no, we are just selling them wrong.’ I was the one who went to the mall, not home on the farm with the cows, but I love them. This place without the cows wouldn’t be home.”

The herd drinks spring water and eats grass from GMO-free pastures.

“ We own right up to the edge of Mill Spring where it bubbles up,” Hand said. “The troughs are connected to wells drilled into the springs under the property.”

The cattle also are not fed any grain, resulting in antibiotic- and hormone-free grass-fed beef.

“Dad said, ‘nobody wants grass-fed beef,’” Hand recalled.

A nuclear medicine technologist, Hand started selling the beef to co-workers at the hospital. Grass-fed beef is lower in Omega-6 and higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, and it still has beta-carotene. Though the beef is leaner, it has a strong, fresh flavor. O nce they tasted it, she began selling more.

Nature’s Hand now sets up at the Grand Lagoon Waterfront Farmers’ Market on Sundays, and on Saturdays, Hand alternates between Destin’s Main Street Market and St. Andrews Waterfront Farmers Market. Beginning March 11, she will be back at Lynn Haven Farmers Market on Tuesdays.

“I bring about 200 pounds of beef to the markets now when I go,” Hand said. “ We are sold out of a lot of stuff right now. We don’t continue slaughtering, which means we don’t freeze long.”

Freezing is the only method of preservation used, so once thawed, the beef must be used in 24 hours.

“Susan ate some of our beef and loved it. She started doing sliders a few months ago,” Hand said.

The herd is closed, but a bull was brought in a decade ago for breeding, which resulted in a more tender meat.

“Ten years ago, we introduced a full-blooded Charolais,” Hand said. “Before that, we had Beefmaster bull.”

She pointed out the white bodies on some of the cows, signature of the Charolais, as well as the “red head” of the Beefmaster coming through.

“The combination — he’s just gorgeous all around and you can taste it in the quality of meat,” Hand said.

Raising cattle always has been one of her dad’s passions, and he always has been interested in trying to make things better, “including breeding a better cow.”

“The Charlois is more tender,” Hand said. “The Beefmaster brings in a more stable birthing cow to us. We tend to slaughter in the 400 to 600 pound range, about 18 months. It makes the steaks smaller, but more tender.”

Nature’s Hand uses two different slaughtering houses, Westville Meats and Esto Meats in Bonifay, which means short traveling time for the cows.

“They are kept low stress right until slaughter,” Hand said.

Nature’s Hand grass-fed beef will be featured during the Winter Harvest Dinner on Feb. 21 at Capt. Anderson’s in Panama City Beach.

“We will be brining some of Carolyn's beef brisket for the entrée and some of it will be used in the soup,” said Ronnie Barnes of Waterfront Markets Inc.

The four-course Irish-themed menu will include Smoked Beef-Barley & Bean Soup with Kale and Mushrooms and Corned Beef with Winter Cabbage, as well as Scotch Egg on Bed O’ Greens with Guinness Vinaigrette, Potato Medley and Irish Dessert Surprise by Capt. Anderson’s.

“Esto Meats has a huge smokehouse. We are going to provide the smoked marrow bones to the chef to make a broth for the smoked beef barley soup, and they will use some of our brisket as well,” Hand said.

Waterfront Markets Inc. also will feature Nature’s Hand on the Small Farms Adventure Tours on Feb. 19 and March 5.

“We are so excited that this is our 10th Small Farms Adventure since 2011,” Barnes said. “We help connect folks with our local farmers so that they can develop a relationship with them.”

The luxury tour bus will park by the old white dairy block, built by Hand’s grandfather, across the street from their blue and white ranch-style house. On Monday morning, the spot was occupied by her father’s black semi-truck.

“You can’t do this and not have a job,” said Hand, who also has a part-time job during her “internship” at the farm. “Even though this property is fifth generation, it is not handed down in my family. They saved up enough money to buy the land. If it ever becomes my farm, I will have to buy it just like they did.”

Her father had purchased the original property from his father in 1969.

“This piece was bought when I was 16,” said Hand, 38, as she stood in front of the house next to the winter pasture. “This is happening all over the country. People are losing their farms. This farm was in decline until I came back and started helping and realized the potential of these animals.”

The tour will ride through the terraces her dad rebuilt with his tractor.

“We will take the hay ride up the hill and look around. We are looking at about 40 acres here and another 40 acres over there. There are 210 acres in all,” said Hand, who pointed out the clover with tiny sprigs of purple flowers, where a lady bug rested.

“The natural clover brings nitrogen to the surface,” she said. “We are as chemical-free as we can be. We have ant beds. We have weeds. The ants are a food source for other animals; it’s having a natural environment. Our cows like crabgrass and sand spurs before it gets to the spur. And it makes for perfectly beautiful pastures.”

The beef that doesn’t get sold gets eaten.

Though her dad was “born and raised on this place,” her mom originally is from upstate New York and moved to New Mexico in middle school.

“That’s what we eat here at the house,” Hand said. “We have some great Southern recipes from his side. We have a beef stew that is traditional, but mom puts this German flour dumpling in it. In my mom’s family, we a lot of influence from New Mexico. The Open-Faced enchiladas are an easy way to do enchiladas and not work of having to bake them.”

Open-Faced Enchiladas

1 medium onion, chopped

4 jalapenos, seeded and chopped

1 pound Nature’s Hand ground beef

Green chile enchilada sauce

Fresh tomato, sliced

Fresh avocado, sliced

Fresh cilantro

Lime

Sour cream

Cheese

Tortillas, corn or flour

1 tablespoon organic coconut oil

½ tablespoon Garden of Eaten North African Harissa (optional)

Pinto beans (optional)

Sweat onions in organic coconut oil, then throw the jalapenos and let it cook down a little. Add ground beef and brown it with onions and jalapenos. At this point, you may add in some kind of spice, such as Garden of Eaten North African Harissa. Once the beef is browned, open up a can of sauce and put it on the stove in a skillet large enough skillet to soak tortillas in. Soak tortillas in skillet about 30 seconds on each side. Put each tortilla on a plate, top with beef mixture and pinto beans, if desired. Sprinkle with cheese, then and top with lettuce, cilantro, tomato, avocado and sour cream. Serve with lime for squeezing over the top.

Source: Carolyn Hand, Nature’s Hand Cattle Co.

Easy Beef Stew

1 Nature’s Hand Cattle Chuck Roast

1 large onion diced

1 cup of water (additional water for slow cooker as needed)

1 pound organic baby carrots

1 pound Italian green beans

1 pound fresh mushrooms sliced

salt and pepper as needed

German Dumpling Recipe, optional

Braze the chuck roast in a skillet over med-high heat until all sides are browned.

Next add ¼ cup of the diced onions to the pan and sauté. Once onions caramelize, add 1 cup of water to the skillet and bring to a boil for 30 seconds. Carefully place the chuck roast and the liquid into a large slow cooker, adding water as needed to immerse the entire roast until it is just barely covered by the water.

Cook on high 5-6 hours until the bones slip out of the roast easily. Discard the bones and break the meat apart.

Once you have the beef chunks divided into the size you prefer, add the remaining ingredients and cook on high until the vegetables are done (about 1 hour).

Mom’s German Dumplings

1¼ cup self-rising flour

¼ cup vegetable oil

½ cup milk

Place flour in a small bowl, then add oil and milk alternately, mixing well.

Thirty minutes after the vegetables are placed into the slow cooker, spoon the dumplings in one at a time on top of the stew. The dumplings will finish on top of the stew.

Source: Carolyn Hand, Nature’s Hand Cattle Co.

WINTER HARVEST DINNER

What: Cocktail hour, live music from Lucky Mud, four-course Irish-themed dinner to celebrate local farmers; presented by Waterfront Markets Inc.